24-hour Memorial Day vigil in Hall County

GAINESVILLE, Ga. -- Memorial Day services in Hall County include a 24-hour vigil at the graves of fallen soldiers.

Members of the Honor Guard from the Hall County Sheriff's Department, Gainesville Police, and the Army National Guard have been keeping watch over the veterans section of Memorial Park.

"These are our honored dead," said Bonner Burton, a member of the Sheriff's Department Honor Guard. "It's appropriate to be quiet and humble in their presence."

Volunteers have marched in 30-minute shifts in front of the cemetery's eternal flame beginning just after midnight. It will continue until Memorial Day's final moments.

Part of the county's Memorial Day service paused to honor a young man who almost didn't make it home from war. Nineteen-year-old Sean Adams lost both legs to an explosive device while serving in Afghanistan.

"He knows he could have been in one of those graves," said Tina Adams, Lance Corporal Adam's mother. "By the grace of God he wasn't."